{"id":46693,"date":"2026-04-07T15:23:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/dominican-theologian-warns-of-indifference-to-violence\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:24:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:24:02","slug":"dominican-theologian-warns-of-indifference-to-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/dominican-theologian-warns-of-indifference-to-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominican theologian warns of ‘indifference’ to violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Father Thomas Petri, OP, a Dominican theologian, reflected on Pope Leo XIV’s call for peace in the Holy Father’s first Easter message to the faithful and warned against showing “indifference” toward violence.<\/p>\n

“During his Urbi et Orbi message (on Easter), he mentioned the globalization of indifference, the indifference that we have, that even good Christians and good Catholics have to commit violence,” Petrie told anchor Veronica Dudo in an interview on “EWTN News Nightly” on April 6.<\/p>\n

“We have become insensitive to it,” he said. “But if Christ has shown us anything, it is that power, Almighty God, wins the battle against sin and death, not by defeating it by violence or in some grand gesture of war against evil. Rather, he sacrifices himself, he gives himself in service, he dies for it, and then he stands up for it without losing an ounce of his dignity, an ounce of his power. Is.”<\/p>\n

In his Easter message to the faithful, Leo reflected on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, saying Easter is “the triumph of life over death, of light over darkness, of love over hatred.” <\/p>\n

He said: “The power with which Christ rose is completely non-violent” and compared it to “a human heart which, wounded by a crime, rejects the instinct for revenge and is filled with compassion and prays for the one who has committed the crime.”<\/p>\n

Leo called the resurrection “the beginning of a new humanity” and “entry into the true promised land, where justice, freedom and peace reign, where all recognize each other as brothers and sisters, children of the same Father who is love, life and light.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are becoming accustomed to violence, dedicating ourselves to it and becoming indifferent,\u201d the Pope said. “Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the consequences of hatred and division that conflict creates. Indifferent to the economic and social consequences they produce, which we all feel.”<\/p>\n

Petri said during the interview that the Holy Father “challenged us to live in the same kind of grace, not to be troubled by the problems of the world, but at the same time not to be indifferent to them, so that we can coexist with peace and stability and at the same time be disturbed and troubled and concerned about not only our own sinfulness and what we see in our own lives, but in the Church and in the world.”<\/p>\n

Pope urged to lay down arms<\/h2>\n

Petri also discussed Leo’s direct call for peace at Easter, in which the Holy Father said: “Let those who have weapons spare them” and “Let those who have the power to start wars choose peace; not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue!”<\/p>\n

In the interview, Petri said: “It may be easy to dismiss Leo’s call for peace, as “the Pope always calls for peace,” but he warned against underestimating the Holy Father’s role as merely “a moral man” and “a great teacher.”<\/p>\n

“In fact, we believe he is Christ’s vicar on earth,” Petrie said. “And the teachings of the Church, the teachings of Jesus Christ himself, actually argue and maintain that peace and nonviolence is ultimately the path to eternal peace.”<\/p>\n

Petrie said, “Only by the grace of Jesus Christ will we find justice, peace, forgiveness and love, living together as one reality.” \u201cAnd so this vigil for peace is certainly important and certainly it is important that the Pope has called for it, but it is also a real plea, not just that people will lay down their arms and be peaceful with each other, although that is so, but that God himself will give peace to a world that so desperately needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo’s call for peace comes as President Donald Trump said he plans to escalate the conflict in Iran. The president said in a Truth Social post on Easter that April 7 would be “Power Plant Day and Bridge Day” while he used profanity to demand Iran open the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Trump threatened in a separate Truth Social post on April 7, saying that “an entire civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father Thomas Petri, OP, a Dominican theologian, reflected on Pope Leo XIV’s call for peace in the Holy Father’s first Easter message to the faithful and warned against showing “indifference” toward violence. “During his Urbi et Orbi message (on Easter), he mentioned the globalization of indifference, the indifference that we have, that even good Christians<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[8343,17465,17464,298,235],"class_list":["post-46693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-news","tag-dominican","tag-indifference","tag-theologian","tag-violence","tag-warns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46695,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46693\/revisions\/46695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}